Letters from our Readers: No real ‘obstacle’ to Special Police liability

Liability seems to be a big concern to Police Commission President Joe Marshall regarding the privately paid Patrol Special Police. But he fails to specify the liability “obstacle,” and there appears to be none.

The commission over which he presides passed regulations requiring Patrol Specials to provide clients with liability insurance policies and also name The City as an “additional insured.” There’s simply no risk other than one the commission can easily resolve by raising coverage limits to reflect increased risk from our litigious society.

Ann Grogan, San Francisco

Runaway pensions alive

Ken Garcia’s column summarizing state and local election results omitted mention of Proposition B losing. While Garcia bothered to laud Proposition G ending the Muni unions “gravy train,” he neglected to note that the “runaway train” of city employee union pension plans and health care benefits is still rolling.

Garcia normally shows concern for local issues. But is he oblivious to the looming municipal bankruptcy from the pension and health care largess heaped upon our civil servants by our elected representatives in exchange for political payback?

Matt Mitguard , San Francisco

Sit-lie’s passage welcome

With passage of the sit-lie law, now is the first time in a long while when I can stroll along my neighborhood shopping avenue to retrieve the San Francisco Examiner without the usual line-up of beggars outside businesses chanting “Have a good day,” “Enjoy your shopping,” “Thank you,” etc. as they sit on the sidewalk or on stools, many smoking or drinking a Starbucks coffee with their dog alongside.

Frank Norton, San Francisco

Prop. B was deceptive

Thank you, citizens of San Francisco, for voting no on Proposition B.

You could all see how bad this proposition was for middle-income working families and how Public Defender Jeff Adachi deceived you in order to get additional funds for his department. Now our focus as public employees is to better serve San Francisco, just like I intended to do when I took my job with The City.

Patrick Siu, Fairfield

Our bipolar electorate

It seems like about half of our country is in favor of President Barack Obama’s health care reform package, and about half are against it. Too bad Congress couldn’t be like King Solomon, pretending he would divide a baby in half to neutralize both women claiming it was theirs. Maybe the half of the country that wants Obama’s health care can get it, and the other half that doesn’t want it can get something else that the Republicans propose.

Our country appears to have become hopelessly bipolar, as the gap keeps widening between conservatives and liberals who act incapable of compromising and reaching agreement on anything. Maybe the best solution is to divide our country in half, and let the liberals run part of our country and the conservatives the other part. Then each will be happy and won’t have to argue with each other.